Chapter 1: Gladys Aylward had always wanted to act on stage as a child. She attended Sunday school but always this desire to act burned in her. She became a parlormaid, with the intent on learning drama on the side to pursue a career on stage.

However, one night for a reason she can't explain, Gladys attends a religious meeting and there realizes that God has a claim on her and that Jesus Christ is her savior. She joins the Young Life Campaign and reads an article about China. She finds it "a staggering thought" that so many people in China have never even heard of Jesus Christ. Eventually, it becomes Gladys' sole desire to travel to China and do missionary work there.

The way there is not easy. A missionary society rejects her request to go to China, taking her for a simple girl who could never...